Saturday, 26 March 2011

Taylor commits verbal misconduct

Lawrence Taylor may be the most honest (former) professional athlete in the business. He’s a complete idiot, but darn it, he’s honest. Sentenced Tuesday to six years probation for consorting with an underage prostitute, he was not only unapologetic about the incident but flippant about prostitution itself.

One of his pure-gold quotes to Fox News reads as follows: “I guess you call it a crime. It’s one of those crimes you don’t think about. You never think you’re gonna get busted because everyone does it until you get busted, and then it’s more embarrassing than anything else.”

Yes, it must be embarrassing to be heard expressing ambivalence about an industry that’s responsible for immeasurable suffering worldwide. Taylor should go into trauma counseling or something.

Of course, as Taylor points out, he’s “not the cause of prostitution.”

No genius, but you’re obviously contributing to it — in more ways than one.

It’s actually fortunate Taylor made those comments, because it sheds light on the ignorance and arrogance that leads countless famous people — athletes and otherwise — to break the law with near impunity and then whine when they get caught.

Instead of vilifying Taylor for not faking a mea culpa, his interview should be used to create a Barack-Obama-style “teachable moment.” If Taylor doesn’t know that prostitution is an exploitative business, and instead just thinks of it as a victimless crime, you can be at lot of other people do, too.

Forget probation — someone needs to give the man an education. Maybe an enlightened Taylor could end up setting an example. More likely, though, is that he’ll remain another disgraced athlete with a very angry wife.